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From the Chair
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Dear alumni and friends,
We hope that your new year is off to a good start! As we begin the 2025 spring semester, we wanted to update you on recent developments, transitions, and happenings within our department.
This past fall, we welcomed a stellar class of 17 new students, hailing from 14 colleges and universities, eight states, and four countries. We are grateful that they chose the University of Iowa to pursue their graduate degrees, and that they have joined our extended academic family.
We experienced a few significant transitions since you received our last newsletter in the spring of 2024. Our much beloved staff member Ann Weber, who has been with the department since 2006, retired this summer. We wish Ann happiness and good health in her retirement years. We were fortunate to recruit Emily Stagman as our new Administrative Services Coordinator. Emily is a lifelong Iowan and a 2020 alumna of the University of Iowa. She has been a joy to have on our staff.
This December, we bid farewell to our colleague Dr. Ryan Cho, who accepted an appointment in the Division of Biostatistics and the Department of Neuroscience at the University of California at San Diego. We are grateful for Ryan’s contributions to our academic mission, and although we will sincerely miss him, he will continue to be engaged with our department as an Adjunct Professor. We also welcomed a new colleague, Dr. David-Erick Lafontant, as a Clinical Assistant Professor. David-Erick has been on the staff of the Clinical Trials Statistical and Data Management Center (CTSDMC) since 2013, and completed his doctoral degree from our department this past fall. He will continue working for the CTSDMC in a leadership capacity.
We hope you will enjoy perusing the stories and articles in this edition of our newsletter. Along with information about current events within the department, we intend to use this forum as a means of providing updates on our alumni; with this in mind, please send us news and announcements, both professional and personal at Biostatistics@uiowa.edu. We would love to hear from you!
Sincerely,
Joseph E. Cavanaugh, PhD
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Department News
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Coffey, professor of biostatistics and director of the Clinical Trials Statistical and Data Management Center (CTSDMC), will hold the endowed chair for a renewable five-year term. The Edwin B. Green Chair honors University of Iowa alumnus Edwin Green, who was a long-time supporter of the arts, the medical community, and his own field, journalism.
read more...
Lecture series honoring the late Kathryn Chaloner inaugurated by Dr. Xihong Lin
On September 9th, the first annual Chaloner Lecture was presented by Dr. Xihong Lin, professor of biostatistics and coordinating director for the Program in Quantitative Genomics at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Kathryn Chaloner, for whom the lecture series is named, served as professor and head of the Department of Biostatistics from 2002 until her death in October 2014. Dr. Lin's talk, entitled Empower a Scalable and Interpretable End-to-End Data Science Ecosystem by Integrating Statistics, AI, and Domain Science, discussed the importance of being a 'full data scientist' and making use of diverse and fair data; scalable stats, ML and AI methods, tools, and infrastructure; and interpretable data analysis and results.
In Memoriam: Dr. Kathryn Chaloner | Institute of Mathematical Statistics
Academic Profile: Dr. Xihong Lin | Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
2024 Iowa Summer Institute in Biostatistics Students
The 2024 Iowa Summer Institute in Biostatistics (ISIB) class
Daniel Sewell, associate professor in Biostatistics, shares advice for students, a recent read he found compelling, and why he strives to be an expert and leader in biostatistics.
read the interview...
Seminars will be held on Mondays from 3:30pm to 4:20pm in C217 CPHB unless otherwise noted.
- February 10: Mehrdad Moharrami, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
- February 24: Sandra Safo, Associate Professor of Biostatistics & Health Data Science, University of Minnesota School of Public Health
- March 10: Chris Quinn, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Iowa State University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
- April 7: Devin Koestler, Professor of Biostatistics & Data Science, University of Kansas Medical Center. 3:30 - 4:20pm, S106 CPHB
- April 21: Ronghui (Lily) Xu, Professor of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, University of California San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health
Please contact Emily Stagman if you would like to receive calendar invites for future seminars.
Congratulations Staff Award Winners!
The Department of Biostatistics was proud to present the Terry Kirk and Dixie Ecklund Staff Awards (formerly the Statistically Significant Staff Awards) to Shannon Carrillo and Holly Ernst at our Fall Recognition Luncheon. Thank you, Shannon and Holly, for all you do!
In memoriam: Michael Bosch
Michael Bosch, a lead research coordinator in the Clinical Trials Statistical and Data Management Center (CTSDMC) from 2012 to 2018, died on Sunday, Dec. 1, at his home in Iowa City, surrounded by his family. Over a career of more than 35 years at the University of Iowa, Mike worked as a staff nurse and nurse manager in the Clinical Research Unit as well as the CTSDMC. During his time at CTSDMC, he led protocol management and data collection efforts for the NeuroNEXT Data Coordinating Center. He retired from the University of Iowa in 2018.
Read Mike's own words about his life via The Gazette, and view his full obituary via Gay and Ciha.
Retirement: Ann Weber
We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Ann Weber upon her retirement this past July after 18 years with the Department of Biostatistics. Always armed with a smile and a sunny disposition, Ann provided support to faculty, staff, and students in any and all endeavors, including planning special events & catering, maintenance of faculty records, arrangement of travel plans for faculty and guests, and beyond. Thank you, Ann!
New staff: Emily Stagman
We are delighted to announce that Emily Stagman joined the Department of Biostatistics in June as an Administrative Services Coordinator. In this role, Emily supports daily operations of the Department. We are pleased to have Emily with us!
More Department News
Highlights from the CTSDMC
This year the Clinical Trials Statistical and Data Management Center (CTSDMC) celebrated our 35th anniversary. We have welcomed 5 new team members and have had 3 new projects funded, including: Path to Prevention (P2P) Platform Trial Data Management and Statistics Cores funded by the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and the PCORI-funded APT Comparison Study, a comparative effectiveness trial for three commonly used headache medications. Other notable accomplishments include: the successful launch of an NIH-funded interventional epilepsy trial (the Epilepsy Journey 2.0 study); and the launch of a network wide dashboard for the Network for Excellence in Neuroscience Clinical Trials (NeuroNEXT). In addition, the Center has also seen 5 publications come to fruition since last summer; and, for the second year in a row, a PPMI publication was selected by editors of Neurology Today as one of the top papers in movement disorders that move the field of neurology forward in 2024. This paper introducing a new staging system based on a biologic staging process has opened new avenues for research in the field of PD, including the ongoing development of the first of its kind platform study in a pre-clinically diagnosed population within PPMI.
This past year we hosted our 3rd annual All-In Day, where we brought in the Center’s remote team members and local members to discuss current projects and studies as well as celebrate the success we accomplished throughout the year.
We look forward to continuing to expand on the successes of 2024 and taking advantage of all the opportunities and advancements that 2025 will bring us.
All-In Day - October 8th, 2024
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Research Highlights
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Emily Roberts, assistant professor of biostatistics in the University of Iowa College of Public Health, has been selected by the Institute for Public Health Practice, Research and Policy (IPHPRP) to establish a new collaboratory dedicated to advancing causal inference research. In addition to Roberts, collaboratory team members include Ryan Cho, Jonathan Platt, Kai Wang, and Nathan Wikle.
read more...
Two University of Iowa researchers have been approved for nearly $18 million to help older adults with multiple chronic medical conditions better manage their hypertension. CPH professor Carri Casteel is a dual-principal investigator on the award along with Korey Kennelty from the College of Pharmacy. CPH co-investigators include Jon Davis, Ryan Carnahan, and Joseph Cavanaugh.
read more...
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded a $4.3 million grant over five years to the University of Iowa to continue the Injury Prevention Research Center in the College of Public Health. Biostatistics professor and DEO Joseph Cavanaugh currently serves as a member of the IPRC Executive Committee.
read more...
A new study from University of Iowa researchers examines how converting four-lane roads to three-lane roads impacts emergency responses. The researchers included Cara Hamann, Joseph Cavanaugh, and Stephanie Jansson from the College of Public Health.
read more...
More about Research Centers
(CPHS) IPHPRP Statistics/Analytics Core
CTSDMC Clinical Trials Statistical and Data Management Center
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Alumni News
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Alumna Leslie McClure (97MS) is now the dean of Saint Louis University’s College for Public Health and Social Justice and fellow with the SLU Research Institute. She recently reflected on the experiences that brought her to this new position and what it means to grow public health research.
read more...
Alumni Awards
Mitch Thomann was honored by the Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health at the annual CPH Awards & Recognition Presentation held May 1, 2024.
Attention Biostatistics Alums:
We love hearing what you are accomplishing! Send us your news stories at: biostatistics@uiowa.edu
Join our Alumni Directory
Keep up with your classmates with our College of Public Health Alumni Directory. Use this form to join the directory or to update your existing listing. Alumni are listed by name, degrees earned, town of residence, and email address, and have the option of adding employer, job title, employment sector, and LinkedIn page.
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Student News
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Welcome, Students!
This fall, the Department of Biostatistics welcomed 17 new MS and PhD students, hailing from 14 colleges & universities, 8 states, and 4 countries, in addition to 34 returning students.
Check out the current student roster here.
Lauren Mudd discovered a love for biostatistics while attending the Iowa Summer Institute in Biostatistics when she was an undergraduate student. She returned to Iowa to earn a master’s degree in biostatistics and again — this time while balancing a job and family — to complete a PhD.
read more...
Congratulations Fall 2024 Graduates!
Left to right: Jacob Seedorff, PhD, David-Erick Lafontant, PhD, Lauren Mudd, PhD, Haomin Li, PhD. Not pictured: Alankar Kampoowale, MPH.
This past April, several graduate students from the Department of Biostatistics held an introductory coding and biostatistics workshop with fourth through sixth grade girls participating in the Neighborhood Centers of Johnson County’s (NCJC) after school program in Iowa City. Amy Wu, one of the students coordinating the workshop, shared more details about the event.
read the interview...
Student Awards
Jake Alston was honored by the Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health at the annual CPH Awards & Recognition Presentation held May 1, 2024.
The Fall 2024 Burmeister Memorial Scholarship was presented on December 19, 2024 to Cheney Hurley and Krit Petrachaianan, for exceptional work in their MS and Doctoral studies respectively.
Student Travel Awards
Several students received CPH Advancing Graduate Student Success Awards. May 2024 recipients include Stephanie Jansson, Megan McCabe, Tabitha Peter, Jamie Merchant, and Kailey Henkle. December 2024 recipients include Yujin Lu.
Apply for the AGSSA here - applications are due February 15, May 1, September 15, and December 1.
This October, Stephanie Jansson received the Dr. Carol S. Gleich Development Award to support her travel expenses for her presentation at the International Cycling Safety Conference in Imabari, Japan. Stephanie presented "A Naturalistic Study Assessing the Impact of Bicycle Daytime Running Lights on Motor Vehicle Passing Distances."
Read about the fall 2024 Gleich Award recipients here.
Applications for the Gleich award are reviewed twice yearly, in March and October. View award details, eligibility, and submission guidelines here.
Fall 2024 Photos
More about our students
Throughout the school year, the BSO hosts a number of academic, social, and volunteering events. The Biostatistics Student Organization is an American Statistical Association (ASA) Student Chapter. Follow the BSO on Twitter to keep up with their latest events.
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About the Department
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Learn more about our mission, rankings, summer program, resources, faculty areas of expertise, student research positions, center affiliations, and alumni positions.
Biostatistics at a Glance...
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